Invest in the 3rd world - Microfinance

[sinner]

http://www.kiva.org

What Is Kiva?
We Let You Loan to the Working Poor

Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

The people you see on Kiva's site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs' profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.

Kiva partners with existing expert microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified entrepreneurs. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva, our partners upload their entrepreneur profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. When you do, not only do you get a unique experience connecting to a specific entrepreneur on the other side of the planet, but our microfinance partners can do more of what they do, more efficiently.

Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform. We are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle, and what effect it has on the people and institutions lending it, borrowing it, and managing it along the way. To do this, we are using the power of the internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Child sponsorship has always been a high overhead business. Kiva creates a similar interpersonal connection at much lower costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery. The individuals featured on our website are real people who need a loan and are waiting for socially-minded individuals like you to lend them money.

For the people on this site who moved around thousands of dollars in capital around the globe every day, perhaps consider a loan with less counter-party risk than a 10 year US-T bond and less cost than a single share of BHP :

 

[MS+Tradesim]

I like the look of that. Think I'll read up on it. Thanks for the link Sinner.

 

[James Austin]

back in the 90s i travelled to Bangladesh to study the Grameen Bank which was founded by Professor Muhammad Yunus.

Yunus' field is economics; unable to reconcile the disparity b/w the economic theories he espoused with the slums he drove past daily to get to the university where he worked, he struck upon the idea that access to credit was a key component for the alleviation of poverty.

From this central thesis he established the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh which targets the poorest of the poor, provides them with a loan which they are to use to start a small business, generate an income and alleviate their impoverished circumstance. All loans are to be repaid.

The Grameen model has been replicated world wide with enormous success. Great stuff.

http://www.grameen-info.org/

 

[MS+Tradesim]

back in the 90s i travelled to Bangladesh to study the Grameen Bank which was founded by Professor Muhammad Yunus.

James,

I seem to recall a book about Grameen Bank in some local bookshops. Think it was "Banker to the Poor". Have you read it?

 

[James Austin]

James,

I seem to recall a book about Grameen Bank in some local bookshops. Think it was "Banker to the Poor". Have you read it?

sounds familiar. i was reading lots of books on the topic in the 90s, so probably read that one at some time.

 

[prawn_86]

James,

I seem to recall a book about Grameen Bank in some local bookshops. Think it was "Banker to the Poor". Have you read it?

Yeh, i have heard of it and him, but not read the book.

Some figures i saw was that the default rate is only about 2%. Most people borrowing are for simple things like kettles to boil water so it is disease free and the people feel ashamed if they do not repay it.

Great idea IMO, i know some organistions that are involved in it also.